Ouch!!!

Trip Start May 29, 2008

102

Trip End Dec 19, 2008

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Where I stayed

Shin Osaka Hotel

Flag of Japan Osaka, Kinki, Japan
Monday, October 13, 2008

We almost didn't make it to Japan. We arrived at the airport to find out that our flight was cancelled. We must have missed the memo. Nobody told us nor was anything posted online at their flight confirmation tab. After we waited at the kiosk for a half an hour trying to communicate with the attendant, they pretty much brushed us off as they had to take care of these 50 pound bags of rice that they needed to check-in because in China rice is a much higher priority than any person. After realizing where we stood on the priority totem pole, we asked to speak to a manager. Eventually, we made it up to their offices, but not after we looked everywhere (nobody knew where the office was like they didn't even exist) and finally came to a small little office with no sign and one woman typing up a storm - she must have been the brains of that airline. They were able to book us on another airline - whew! That one was close.

We arrived in Osaka, Japan to find that it was extremely dense and they said Tokyo was even worse. Japan is the most densely populated country in the world with 120 million people in a land area the size of Italy but with 70% of it consisting of mountains. Buildings and houses were virtually attached everywhere you went and had to be built vertically. There was a contortionist we later saw in another country that was squeezing herself into a box that would hold a small tv and she joked that she purchased this in Tokyo - it was advertised as a 2BD, 3BA apartment. Not surprisingly, the hotel room was pretty small . What we liked most was that people were actually organized here and orderly as opposed to the chaos we experienced in China. Everything was so futuristic. Our train looked like something out of Space Odyssey 2000. Prices were through the roof as we paid $600 to travel on their national metro.

We finally arrived at our hotel. We found convenience stores nearby that sold bottled green iced tea and probiotic yogurts. Japanese are extremely health-conscious as these items were really popular. Lucky for me, I loved them and took advantage.

At night, we decided to eat at a local, authentic Japanese restaurant. The hotel recommended a great one. It was a fantastic sushi restaurant with the nicest people. It must have been family run because everything was done with such TCL. Rachel tried the raw fish sashimi. Rachel has been getting braver as the trip progresses. Maybe it's because after seeing me eat all of this wild and weird food makes the sashimi-type stuff seem like meat and potatoes. We also were served Asahi beer. They didn't have any other kind - I guess that tells you where their beer allegiances lie.

One thing about Japanese food is that there is so much fantastic variety. Teppanyaki, sashimi, udon, tempura, sushi, sukiyaki, and a dozen others. Their desserts are also out of this world - they're really light too so you don't feel sick after eating them. You will never get bored eating in Japan. Actually, we think as a whole Japan had the best food of any country we visited.

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